Never let it be said that the Publicity Queen team miss an opportunity to learn about the world of PR. This week my very own Royal Advisor, Libby Collett, winged her way down to Sydney to the Ultimo studios of the ABC for the taping of Gruen Planet.

Gruen Planet (whimsically described by Supervising Producer, Jon Casimir) as a ‘brand extension’ of The Gruen Transfer, shines a light on the backroom shenanigans of the world of pitch, marketing, spin and message control, and happens to be the highest rating programme on the ABC’s weekly schedule. In case you missed this week’s episode, you can catch up on iView here

Libby tells me there was a great deal of comedic gold that didn’t make it into the ‘can’ on the night, with several hours of filming finally condensed into a half-hour episode that went to air on Wednesday night.

Among the evening’s highlights were the hilarious comparisons between first-timer on the panel, Stuart Gregor of Liquid Ideas and mainstay Russel Howcroft of George Patterson Y&R, who looked disturbingly alike; and Wil Anderson said he felt very outnumbered by the two baldies on the panel, only to turn around and be faced by the handsome and clean-shaven heads of the two creatives behind The Pitch – Jeff Champtaloup of BrainCELLS in Perth and Guillaume Roux of Sense in Melbourne, who each tried to convince us not to bet on the Melbourne Cup.

The show provides a tremendous opportunity for PR creatives to share their insight about our industry, how it works and why, and just how much can be invested in the purchase of the most intangible of commodities – influence!